


Given how competitors like Spotify and Apple now own the markets for streaming and purchasing music online, this move doesn’t come as a total surprise. What does come as a surprise, though, is that Microsoft has partnered with Spotify to move all its Groove Music Pass customers over to Spotify.



For the most part, Spotify offers a superset of Groove’s music catalog, so except for a few edge cases, there’s no reason to believe that moving to Spotify would be a great loss for Groove Music Pass customers. And because Spotify is available on Windows Phone, too, even the few users still left on Microsoft’s failed mobile platform won’t miss out.

As for Groove Music itself, Microsoft says the actual app won’t go away anytime soon. It’ll still be available for playing back and managing music that’s stored locally.


It’s worth noting that the Windows Store also offers games, video content and books. Here, too, Microsoft faces formidable competitors ranging from Steam (at least for PC gaming) to Netflix and Amazon. It doesn’t sound like we should expect similar “partnerships” in these areas, though, which makes sense, given that games and video content also play a major role in the Xbox ecosystem. As for books, though, I can’t imagine Microsoft is making a lot of money here or that offering an e-book store gives it much of an edge.